VU, Sewanee offer tuition waivers as part of higher-ed program

Sep. 20, 2013

Written by

Brian Wilson

The Tennessean

Vanderbilt University and the University of the South both joined a program giving free tuition to high school students they admit from parts of four school districts in New York and Pennsylvania.

Both universities this week signed the Higher Education Compact from the nonprofit Say Yes to Education, which serves nearly 65,000 children from kindergarten to 12th grade in Buffalo, Syracuse, New York City and Philadelphia.

As part of the program, students whose families make less than $75,000 a year and who are accepted to either school will have their tuition waived.

The Higher Education Compact will complement the financial aid policies already in place at Vanderbilt, said Doug Christiansen, the school’s vice provost for enrollment and dean of admissions.

As part of the Opportunity Vanderbilt program, the school considers itself need-blind and provides grants and loans to students with demonstrated financial need. Christiansen said Say Yes to Education, recently lauded by President Barack Obama, is “consistent with Vanderbilt’s mission of providing access and opportunity to all students who wish to pursue higher education.”

At Sewanee, which provides similar levels of aid, school officials called the program a natural fit for their school about 90 miles southeast of Nashville.

“It represents one more way we can continue Sewanee’s tradition of making a high-quality education possible for capable students, without regard to financial need,” said Lee Ann Backlund, dean of admission and financial aid at Sewanee.

The schools are part of a 54-school group taking part in the Higher Education Compact that also includes Princeton and Cornell universities and Rhodes College.